BJP’s Kishore Kumar Puttur wins K’taka legislative council by-election  

Mangaluru
The vote counting for the Vidhan Parishad by-election in Dakshina Kannada Local Authority Constituency has been completed, with BJP candidate Kishore Kumar Botyadi winning by over 1,600 votes. The Congress candidate, Raju Poojary, was defeated after a close contest. With this win, the BJP has retained its seat in the constituency.
The election was held after Kota Srinivasa Pujari, who was elected as MP from Udupi Chikkamagaluru Constituency, resigned from his Parishad seat. The by-election was conducted on October 21, and the vote counting began at 8 am on Thursday.
A total of 5,906 voters participated in the election, which took place across 392 polling booths. The counting process involved three phases: in the first phase, all votes were counted and mixed; in the second, the validity of ballot papers was checked; and in the third phase, the first preference votes were counted. Kishore Kumar Botyadi secured 3,655 votes, Raju Poojary received 1,958, Anwar Sadat of SDPI got 195, while 90 votes were invalid.
Four candidates contested the election: Kishore Kumar Botyadi from BJP, Raju Poojary from Congress, Anwar Sadat from SDPI, and Dinaka Ullal as an independent candidate. There were 6,032 eligible voters, of which 5,906 voted. The voters included elected members of Gram Panchayat and Urban Local Bodies from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, along with MLAs and MPs.
Kishore Kumar Botyadi, who currently serves as BJP General Secretary of Dakshina Kannada District Committee, has been active in the RSS and ABVP.